Strategies for teaching Writing

Let’s Write!!!

​A fluent and creative writer is one of the best gifts you can give your student. Some students are very excited and thrilled about the idea of being able to write, and put their ideas and passions down on paper. Yet, others are less interested, find it to be, “too hard," and generally claim "writer's block" when ever the pencil and paper come out. Whether your child loves, hates or is somewhere in the middle, there are several great strategies to get your student writing!

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Make writing fun! Always keep it fun and then they will grow!

Journal or Diary Writing. Start a Journal or Diary and encourage your child to write in it daily. The goal should be to include the key components of drafting, revising, conferencing, sharing, editing, and publishing. Click HERE for a great article on Journal Writing.

Reading, Writing and Comprehension all go together! It is important to engage your writter in developing higher order questions, which include Verb Starters, Making Observations, the Frayer Model, and Costa’s Level of Questioning. All of these strategies are focused on helping the students develop higher order questions via elements of gathering information, processing and ultimately applying. Students learn from writing and discussing questions as it helps them to ‘attack’ the complex text by breaking it down into obtainable pieces. By having the students question and respond via writing about specific sentences or sections, they can better see how it fits into the overall theme. In addition, the writing and questioning helps the students to gain deeper understanding and essential critical thinking skills for college and life-long success.

Do a little research on what is the best way to help your middle school student write. Click HERE for a great list of resources that can help you help your student write!

Offer mini writing workshops that will help stimulate and facilitate writing skills. Click HERE for a great example.

Teach your student revision strategies. We all know that the best way to improve your written piece is to reread, revise and repeat. Be sure to instill this strategy among your early writers. Click HERE for some great tips.

Make it fun and relevant to them. Social Media has changed the way in which we write. Although it is critical to understand the fundamentals, it is okay to let them embrace the shift in writing styles. Click HERE for a great way to get your student writing via 'The Selfie Project'.

Pull writing into all subjects. Writing should not just be left for ELA, but it should be in math, science, history and much more. Click HERE for a great article on including writing into everyday math. This concept can also be applied at home. Pull writing into your daily routine. Have student write an essay on why they should receive an iphone or be permitted to have a sleep over. You will be amazed at the quality of work when there is something very important on the line for them!